As I Recall
by Foxy121
Summary: A missing fedora, an old friend, and a dusty photo album.


**GUYS! IT'S FOXY! I'M BACK!**

 **Yooooooo... Where IS everybody?!**

 **This is just a bit of fluffiness, but hopefully it's better than my old stories! (cringes)**

 **ONWARDS!**

 **I do not own Nancy Drew or The Hardy Boys.**

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"Dude. Where's my hat?"

Frank smirked silently as Joe rummaged through his closet at a frantic place. "Maybe if you kept your room clean, you'd be able to find things once in a while," the darker haired brother quipped, leaning casually in the doorway.

An airborne shoe narrowly missed Frank's nose. "For your _information,_ my messy room expresses an inner freedom."

"Inner _freedom?_ Coming from the guy that's been _captured_ by various and sundry criminals how many times?"

"You make it sound like being ransom bait is a _bad_ thing!"

"When I'm the one having to pay the ransom, yes, it is."

A pout. "You never pay ransom. You just come join me."

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"You sound like you're seven."

"Shut up and help me find my hat."

Rolling his eyes, Frank crouched down to look under the bed and wrinkled his nose at the plethora of clothes, graded homework, and empty snack food bags. "Why do you need a hat anyway?"

"I wanted to wear it today. It's the fedora I got when we were in Greece."

Frank thought for a second, then nodded in remembrance, inadvertently bumping his head on Joe's bed frame. "Ow." With a grimace, he got back up, rubbing his head. "Not under there. Just out of curiosity, why today? I don't remember anything special going on."

A heavy _thud_ came from the direction of the closet, followed by a hiss of pain and angry muttering.

"Drop something?"

"Forgot I still had that old CD player. And, in answer to your question," Joe added, falling out of the closet, "I had it set out here _on the bed_ two minutes ago because I just got an Instagram, and a very important selfie session awaits. But when I got back in here, my fedora was GONE!" the blonde clutched at his chest overdramatically.

"Tragedy. I'm sure it misses you."

"Well, duh, what's not to miss?"

They were interrupted by a sound from Frank's room. Frank froze, and Joe silently rolled to his feet. Both knew that they were the only ones at home, as their parents were on vacation, and their aunt was out shopping.

Carefully, Frank edged into the hall. Joe followed, crouching beside his brother as they stayed close to the wall. Peeking carefully around the corner into Frank's room, the two gasped in shock.

Nancy burst out laughing at the two boys' faces and waved from where she sat cross-legged on Frank's perfectly made bed. "Took you long enough."

"whAAAAAT...?" Joe's voice hit a pitch higher than Frank thought possible. Frank got over his shock and crossed the room in a single bound, landing on the bed with enough force to bounce Nancy off balance. The two tumbled off the mattress and landed on the carpet, and Frank laughed as Nancy chucked a pillow at him.

"What are you doing here?" Frank exclaimed, sitting up against the wall, his ear-to-ear grin uncontrollable.

"More importantly, why are you _wearing my fedora?!"_ Joe yelped, snatching for it. Nancy squealed, grabbing the hat and forcing it down almost over her eyes.

"Hey, if you can't keep track of it, you don't deserve to wear it!"

Joe pouted again, plopping down beside Frank as Nancy scooted back to lean against the wall on Frank's other side. "Okay, but you have to give it back eventually!"

"Maybe you'll just have to steal it back," Nancy teased, smiling impishly. "I deserve to wear it after flying for hours to get here."

"How did you get in here?" Frank shook his head in amazement, still trying to process that the pretty detective was in his room. "We locked the doors."

"Don't you remember what happened the first time I visited you guys?" she retorted. "It was also our first rescue mission, as I recall."

It was Frank's turn to pout, and Joe and Nancy shared a fistbump. "You wouldn't have _had_ to do a rescue mission if you'd just listened to me," he protested.

"Hey, you joined us after you tried to get us to stop. But, you know, they always catch the second one," Nancy chuckled.

Joe grinned and stood up. "Be right back. I think there's a dusty old photo album calling our names."

Frank face-palmed. "JOE!"

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 **To be continued...**

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 **I'm planning for each chapter to be a short story following the lines of what the detectives were like as kids. I know it's been done, but it's something I wanted to do to get back in the writing groove. Any ideas for chapters welcome! REVIEW!**

 **NEWSFLASH: Foxy used to be into Cheezits but how she has converted to CHEESE PUFFS! :O IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!**


End file.
